Abortion comprehensive assignment Free Essay Example, 1500 words

History of Abortion in the United s al Affiliation: History of Abortion in the United s Of all the medical procedures that are most common in the United States, abortion is the most practiced. According to a research carried out in the United States of America approximately, â€Å"More than 40% of all women will end a pregnancy by abortion at some time in their reproductive lives. † The prevalence of abortion in the United States of America is too high that research carried out on abortion shows â€Å"3  out of  10 women in the U. S. have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old. † What is abortion? The meaning of the word has been a source of debate amongst the public depending on which side one is basing the argument from. Some people from the section term abortion as murder, or killing of the innocent soul. According to the medical experts, â€Å"An abortion is when the pregnancy is ended so that it does not result in the birth of a child. Sometimes this is called termination of pregnancy. † Before legalizing of abortion Abortion in the United States has been going on for centuries; unwanted pregnancies have been in existence for very many years and in one way or the other such pregnancies were eliminated. We will write a custom essay sample on Abortion comprehensive assignment or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Before the18th century women carried out abortion at will as there were no laws that restricted or barred the women from doing so. Due to the lack of any specific laws so many women carried out abortions that some states started coming up with laws to restrict abortions. The first law was the Connecticut statute 1821 the statute prohibited the use of â€Å"toxic substances to cause miscarriage. † Soon afterwards other states followed New York law in 1829. After the New York law various states came up with laws that punished the abortion providers, restricted abortions and at times punishing women seeking to carry out abortions. The first ever United States Federal law to be enacted was the Comstock Law of 1873. The law allowed a special postal agent to open mails suspected to contain abortion or contraceptive. The main aim for the law was to suppress the circulation of â€Å"obscene materials† From the year 1900 up to1960s, abortions were outlawed. As a result many women turned to unsafe abortion. In the year 1965 a total of 265 deaths were reported to have taken pace as a result of unsafe abortions. New York as well as California reported complications with 20% being as a result abortions. As a result of the numerous deaths associated with unsafe abortions, a series of cases were taken to the Supreme Court and some women were granted the right to carry out abortions (Solodnikov, 2011).